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Ben Aaronovitch Doctor Who books
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William December Starr
May 3, 2015, 12:33:05 PM5/3/15
to
[This was going to be just a brief email to James Nicoll, but it
sort of got away from me and expanded ("Footnotes, Mr. Rico!
Zillions of 'em!") into something that I think I''ll just post
here instead. -- wds]
James:
I visited http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/ and noticed (mostly
because he tops off your alphabetical list of authors) that you'd
reviewed a Ben Aaronovitch book, so I read your RIVERS OF LONDON
(a/k/a MIDNIGHT RIOT) review.
Leaving that particular book aside[1], I noticed this:
As it happens, this is the very first Aaronovitch
that I wanted to read AND that I have managed to track
down. Normally I won't look at tie-in novels but I would
have made an exception for Aaronovitch's Dr Who novel
The Also People, if I'd ever seen a copy. Which
I haven't.
Okay, I can't help you directly in getting a copy of that, although
I do note that copies start at $12.95 at amazon.com[2].
But: I think that if you're willing to try that, you really should
first read his first DW novel, TRANSIT [3,4], from 1992. This is a
book so hard to find that amazon.com doesn't even list it... but I
happen to have two copies and I'm willing to send you one of them
to read and review, if you want.
If you do, I can also give you a bit of background on what happened
in the previous book in the series[5], LOVE AND WAR by Paul Cornell.
Not a whole summary, just a bit of "Who is this person traveling
with the Doctor?", "What are these vague suggestions that he and his
previous companion have just parted on bad terms?", etc.... stuff
that most of the readers of TRANSIT when it came out would likely
have known, as it probably wasn't read by many people who _weren't_
following the book series. TRANSIT _does_ work as a stand-alone,
but knowing a few things about LOVE AND WAR might help.
Let me know here or by email if you want the book.
-- wds
-----------
*1: Alas, for me it was a "one of those books that you read a
fair distance into and then put down meaning to pick it up
again and finish it later but you never do" experience.
*2: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0426204565/
*3: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?10757
*4: He ended up writing two-and-a-half of them.. The third, SO VILE
A SIN, was started by him and then Something Happened -- he
says a hard drive crashed and he lost a lot of manuscript; some
people have suggested that he just let time get away from him
while doing other stuff -- and with a Deadline of Doom looming
he handed it off to a faster DW novelist, Kate Orman, to complete.
*5: This was during the Early Interregnum, the decade after the
show had been put on indefinite (and at the time everybody
presumed permanent) hiatus and as a result nobody at the BBC
cared enough to closely oversee what their original-novels
licencee, Virgin Books, was doing with their "New Adventures"
line, meaning that a lot of fan-authors got to run around in he
playground unsupervised. The crap was very crap[6], but some
of the good was very very good. Of those that I've read of the
the books[7], I hold TRANSIT among the very best.
*6: There was -- just two books after TRANSIT, in fact -- this...
*thing* called THE PIT by one Neil Penswick. It shall be
noted there is no second Doctor Who novel by Neil Penswick.
*7: There were 84 "New Adventures" in all, but when the BBC got
serious about maybe-reviving the show -- remember the 1996
tv-movie with Paul McGann?[8] -- they exercised their option
to take the Doctor back from Virgin, and the 61st was the
last one that he was in. The remaining 23 were set in the
same (gloriously inconsistent) universe (though I believe
that it was verbotten to even mention the Doctor) and
followed the adventures of the Seventh Doctor's final human
traveling companion, Bernice Summerfield, F.R.A.S.[9], who
incidentally had been introduced back in LOVE AND WAR.
After the attempt to restart the series with McGann failed,
the BBC started publishing original Eighth Doctor novels
through their own BBC Books. Despite (because?) being based
on a character who'd had a total of maybe ninety minutes of
airtime including commercials, these weren't bad -- a few
were brilliant, in fact, and many were by New Adventure
authors including the god of them all, Lawrence "Mad Larry"
Miles -- but with the Beeb keeping a close eye on the
proceedings most of the wildness of the NA's was gone.
*8: That's okay. A lot of people don't.
*9: Fairly Rotten at Scrabble. But if people want to think it
means Fellow of the Royal Archaeological Society, that's
fine with her.
sort of got away from me and expanded ("Footnotes, Mr. Rico!
Zillions of 'em!") into something that I think I''ll just post
here instead. -- wds]
James:
I visited http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/ and noticed (mostly
because he tops off your alphabetical list of authors) that you'd
reviewed a Ben Aaronovitch book, so I read your RIVERS OF LONDON
(a/k/a MIDNIGHT RIOT) review.
Leaving that particular book aside[1], I noticed this:
As it happens, this is the very first Aaronovitch
that I wanted to read AND that I have managed to track
down. Normally I won't look at tie-in novels but I would
have made an exception for Aaronovitch's Dr Who novel
The Also People, if I'd ever seen a copy. Which
I haven't.
Okay, I can't help you directly in getting a copy of that, although
I do note that copies start at $12.95 at amazon.com[2].
But: I think that if you're willing to try that, you really should
first read his first DW novel, TRANSIT [3,4], from 1992. This is a
book so hard to find that amazon.com doesn't even list it... but I
happen to have two copies and I'm willing to send you one of them
to read and review, if you want.
If you do, I can also give you a bit of background on what happened
in the previous book in the series[5], LOVE AND WAR by Paul Cornell.
Not a whole summary, just a bit of "Who is this person traveling
with the Doctor?", "What are these vague suggestions that he and his
previous companion have just parted on bad terms?", etc.... stuff
that most of the readers of TRANSIT when it came out would likely
have known, as it probably wasn't read by many people who _weren't_
following the book series. TRANSIT _does_ work as a stand-alone,
but knowing a few things about LOVE AND WAR might help.
Let me know here or by email if you want the book.
-- wds
-----------
*1: Alas, for me it was a "one of those books that you read a
fair distance into and then put down meaning to pick it up
again and finish it later but you never do" experience.
*2: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0426204565/
*3: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?10757
*4: He ended up writing two-and-a-half of them.. The third, SO VILE
A SIN, was started by him and then Something Happened -- he
says a hard drive crashed and he lost a lot of manuscript; some
people have suggested that he just let time get away from him
while doing other stuff -- and with a Deadline of Doom looming
he handed it off to a faster DW novelist, Kate Orman, to complete.
*5: This was during the Early Interregnum, the decade after the
show had been put on indefinite (and at the time everybody
presumed permanent) hiatus and as a result nobody at the BBC
cared enough to closely oversee what their original-novels
licencee, Virgin Books, was doing with their "New Adventures"
line, meaning that a lot of fan-authors got to run around in he
playground unsupervised. The crap was very crap[6], but some
of the good was very very good. Of those that I've read of the
the books[7], I hold TRANSIT among the very best.
*6: There was -- just two books after TRANSIT, in fact -- this...
*thing* called THE PIT by one Neil Penswick. It shall be
noted there is no second Doctor Who novel by Neil Penswick.
*7: There were 84 "New Adventures" in all, but when the BBC got
serious about maybe-reviving the show -- remember the 1996
tv-movie with Paul McGann?[8] -- they exercised their option
to take the Doctor back from Virgin, and the 61st was the
last one that he was in. The remaining 23 were set in the
same (gloriously inconsistent) universe (though I believe
that it was verbotten to even mention the Doctor) and
followed the adventures of the Seventh Doctor's final human
traveling companion, Bernice Summerfield, F.R.A.S.[9], who
incidentally had been introduced back in LOVE AND WAR.
After the attempt to restart the series with McGann failed,
the BBC started publishing original Eighth Doctor novels
through their own BBC Books. Despite (because?) being based
on a character who'd had a total of maybe ninety minutes of
airtime including commercials, these weren't bad -- a few
were brilliant, in fact, and many were by New Adventure
authors including the god of them all, Lawrence "Mad Larry"
Miles -- but with the Beeb keeping a close eye on the
proceedings most of the wildness of the NA's was gone.
*8: That's okay. A lot of people don't.
*9: Fairly Rotten at Scrabble. But if people want to think it
means Fellow of the Royal Archaeological Society, that's
fine with her.
Bill Gill
May 4, 2015, 9:11:19 AM5/4/15
to
has gotten. I enjoy it a lot. I had been wondering about the
credit for a Dr. Who in the list of his books. After reading this
I expect I can live without trying to find a copy.
I don't really care for the new Dr. Who. I am watching the old ones
on Retro Tv. The biggest problem there is that the local station
that carries Retro keeps showing sports instead of the Doctor.
According to Amazon the next of Aaronovitch's books should be
out late this year.
Bill
Don Kuenz
May 4, 2015, 4:11:46 PM5/4/15
to
Who is Paul Cornell?
http://www.amazon.com/New-Adventures-Doctor-Who-Transit/dp/0426203844
Why do two (different?) books share the same ISBN?
https://www.google.com/search?q=0426203844
TIA.
--
,-. Give More expect less Love More
\_/ argue less Listen More talk less
{|||)< Don Kuenz Laugh More complain less Dream More
/ \ doubt less Hope More fear less
`-' Breathe More whine less
Richard Todd
May 4, 2015, 9:30:36 PM5/4/15
to
Don Kuenz <gar...@crcomp.net> writes:
> Open questions for rasw.
>
> Who is Paul Cornell?
> http://www.amazon.com/New-Adventures-Doctor-Who-Transit/dp/0426203844
He is, IIRC, like Ben Aaronovitch, an author of Doctor Who books and TV
> Open questions for rasw.
>
> Who is Paul Cornell?
> http://www.amazon.com/New-Adventures-Doctor-Who-Transit/dp/0426203844
episodes (though, unlike Aaronovitch, his TV work was for the "new" Dr. Who
rather than the old Dr. Who). Curiously enough, he also has
recently entered into the "British policemen confronted with Weird Magic
Shit" genre (which really needs a shorter name), with his two novels
_London Falling_ and _The Severed Streets_, both quite recommended but
considerably darker than Aaronovitch's _Midnight Riot_ and sequels.
John Halpenny
May 11, 2015, 9:26:28 AM5/11/15
to
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Aaronovitch&sts=t&tn=transit
John
William December Starr
May 21, 2015, 7:27:00 PM5/21/15
to
In article <5170aa06-f985-4195...@googlegroups.com>,
I'd assumed that by now they'd integrated its listings with their own.
Apparently not.
-- wds
John Halpenny <j.hal...@rogers.com> said:
> The book is listed on the site where I can find almost anything.... Abebooks.
>
> http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Aaronovitch&sts=t&tn=transit
Huh. Knowing that Amazon had bought Abebooks a bunch of years ago,
> The book is listed on the site where I can find almost anything.... Abebooks.
>
> http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Aaronovitch&sts=t&tn=transit
I'd assumed that by now they'd integrated its listings with their own.
Apparently not.
-- wds
Don Kuenz
May 21, 2015, 9:16:32 PM5/21/15
to
there's twenty five used copies available, all for under $10.00. For
some unknown reason, Amazon incorrectly lists Paul Cornell as the
author. The cover shown by Amazon matches my book, but the byline does
not. ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0426203844 )
The book now holds a place of honor in my SBR (Strategic Book Reserve in
the parlance of Lynn). My plan is to read it "real soon now." LOL.
William December Starr
May 22, 2015, 8:24:49 AM5/22/15
to
In article <2015...@crcomp.net>,
Don Kuenz <gar...@crcomp.net> said:
[ re TRANSIT by Ben Aaronovitch ]
> William December Starr <wds...@panix.com> wrote:
>
>> Huh. Knowing that Amazon had bought Abebooks a bunch of years ago,
>> I'd assumed that by now they'd integrated its listings with their own.
>>
>> Apparently not.
>
> My recently acquired, used MMPB, cost about seven dollars. Right
> now, there's twenty five used copies available, all for under
> $10.00. For some unknown reason, Amazon incorrectly lists Paul
> Cornell as the author. The cover shown by Amazon matches my book,
> but the byline does not. ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0426203844 )
AHA!
-- wds
Don Kuenz <gar...@crcomp.net> said:
[ re TRANSIT by Ben Aaronovitch ]
> William December Starr <wds...@panix.com> wrote:
>
>> Huh. Knowing that Amazon had bought Abebooks a bunch of years ago,
>> I'd assumed that by now they'd integrated its listings with their own.
>>
>> Apparently not.
>
> My recently acquired, used MMPB, cost about seven dollars. Right
> now, there's twenty five used copies available, all for under
> $10.00. For some unknown reason, Amazon incorrectly lists Paul
> Cornell as the author. The cover shown by Amazon matches my book,
> but the byline does not. ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0426203844 )
-- wds
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